Lucky black cats

What with more adventures in my local Cats in Crisis charity shop, cat sitting for some friends' snow-white cat Eira, then finding a sad little note on the doormat when I got back home, saying a furry friend from the neighbourhood had been run over and was 'resting' on St Luke's Rd, it's been a cat-themed week – so here's a feline-based project to round it off...

Wishing you luck

I found these beautiful appliqué kitties in McCall's Sewing in Colour, first published in 1964, which explains: 'The entrancing cats are worked with a hand-operated sewing machine, by way of being an antique, so giving the interesting hoppity-hoppity line'... however, you can get the same results on an electric machine set to a very narrow zig-zag stitch.

Detail showing the 'Hoppity-hoppity' stitching

If you want to go about creating your very own 1960s-style cat picture, all you need are a piece of canvas for the background, black felt for the cats' bodies, two colours of felt for the eyes and flowers, and small pieces of gauze for the flowers (plus ruler, scissors, tracing paper etc). For a grid to follow and detailed instructions, just click here.

What a lovely good luck present this would make!

What I call a stall

When I spied the Judith Mansfield Books stand at the Knitting & Stitching Show in the pretty northern spa town of Harrogate this weekend, I thought I'd died and gone to heaven...

Just a teeny part of the stall

Packed with secondhand books and magazines about sewing, knitting, crochet, weaving, embroidery, cross stitch and printing, not to mention the boxes of old sewing patterns, this was a vintage craft book collector's dream come true.

Wonderwall

Or it would have been if I'd not been working. I was hoping for an hour off from teaching workshops to have a proper rummage, but my classes were all booked up and all I could manage was a dash to Judith's stand just as the show was closing. Judith herself wasn't there but I had a chat to her husband, who told me they don't have a website or sell online, but they do have a seven-day-a-week stall at the Hebden Bridge Antiques Market I feel a special trip back to Yorkshire coming on!

Tapestry time

When I had time to have a good look through that haul of school library books I mentioned, the first thing that caught my eye was this splendid wallhanging.

And it struck me how rarely I see this type of textile art these days, although I do know for a fact that, as well as a mini one in my flat, there are a few cosifying the walls of a Swedish bakery in London and a restaurant on the Isle of Mull in Scotland, like rugs on a wooden floor.

Appliquéd in linen and felt, rather than woven, the tapestry above is taken from a book with one of the best ever covers:

First English-language edition, 1970 (Batsford)

And the back ain't bad either:

By and large consigned to dustbins and attics c1979, I think it's time for a wallhanging revival – and if you'd like to join me, I bring you (free) instructions for the wondrous wall warmer at the top of the post. You're welcome!

School library scoop

I thought my eyes were deceiving me when I happened upon a massive collection of 60s, 70s, 80s (and one 30s) craft books in my local bric-a-brac market yesterday. All from a school library in East Dulwich in south east London – and at £1 a pop, I bought as many as I could carry.

Sadly, for reasons of shelf space, I had to leave behind titles on macramé, plaiting, braiding, soft toy making and other skillz just a little out of the scope of my interests, but this little lot will keep me going for a while. Watch this space for some of the highlights.

Number 73

All that's missing is a bike chained to the railings

I love the way blackwork, the monochrome counted-thread technique that was all the rage way back in fifteen-hundred-and-something, can look so modern, like a pen and ink illustration – and the patchwork effect of areas of different black and white geometric patterns side by side.

In Creative Needlecraft (Sundial Books 1979), author Lynette de Demme had the brilliant idea of depicting one house in blackwork (above) and in three other stitching techniques:

Colour embroidery, blackwork and a bit of applique

To me, no73 looks just like some of the grand Victorian houses around Highgate, north London...

Gritty realism in applique

I'd love to see these lined up together as if they were neighbouring houses on the same street.

Close up on the drawn fabric work version

How nice the way the qualities of each technique emphasise different features of the building – the drainpipe, the balcony, the tiled front steps and three square decorative panels towards the top of the house.

If you'd like to sew your own house in black and white, you'll find a basic guide to blackwork here, and part 2 here.

My first sewing book

 

She's got a skirt pattern and she's going to use it

While having my customary new-year clear-out, I came across the first sewing book I ever owned: My Learn To Sew Book. Why it had been put in storage I have no idea apart from the fact it's really tatty with a ripped and stained cover and half the pages are falling out. Anyway, what a blast from the past it is...

By Janet Barbour/illustrated by Belinda Lyon/published by Hamlyn, 1970

The projects are so familiar they're like old friends. Hello Lazy Daisy cat, Polly Dolly, hedgehog pin cushion and inhabitants of the primitive dolls' house:

(Not to scale)

And a special welcome back for these stylish lion slippers, I missed you *scroll down for a link to the pattern*

 

One of the mane things I like about this book

These lovely illustrations made sewing look fun...

Best hairdos ever

Ah the memories

Sew (geddit), if you can see yourself lounging about with two lions on your feet, click here for the slippers pattern...

Or, if you are looking for something a little less ostentatious, here's how to make this marvellous money belt:

Put your money where your belt is

Does this classic kids' book look familiar to you? Or is there another one that got you into making things? Let me know in the comments!

Happy cat cushion

The cat that got the cream

Isn't she cute with her satisfied smile and Peggy Moffitt-y eyelashes? Imagine her sitting in an armchair, cheering up your abode and making all your guests feel welcome. Perhaps she could become a glamorous ladyfriend for the printed pet cat of a few posts back?

Here's how you can make her out of a piece of vintage fabric (an old pillowcase would do nicely), some black embroidery thread, some stuffing and – the pièce de résisitance – a little bit of fringing for her exaggerated eyelashes.

Taken from my trusty Complete Book of Handicrafts (Octopus, 1973)




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Sew simple quilted jacket

Gimme shelter

It's been raining cats and dogs in London for what seems like months now, and with no let-up on the cards any time soon, I spent this crepuscular Sunday afternoon with the heating on, searching for a pattern for a mac, sou'wester or some kind of rain bonnet.

Nothing doing on the waterproof front, but I did find a smiley girl posing on the seafront with a bright red brolly in a lovely quilted jacket and, in one of my boxes of paper patterns, this skirt depicting a tree being struck by lightning:

Flashy

The jacket is called the Instant Quilted Jacket, which I must admit is a slight exaggeration, but it is made out of pre-quilted fabric, which is a bit of a cheat (purists and those with time on their hands could quilt their own) and the pattern pieces are all squares and rectangles, so it actually is pretty simple to make. Click through to the instructions here and here and here.

Same girl, different hairdo, same jacket, different fabric...

The Instant Quilted Jacket is taken from the 1982 book Stitch by Stitch Part 1, a compilation of the Marshall Cavendish partworks of the same name from 1978-79 (the son/daughter of Golden Hands?)



The half-circle lightning skirt is from this American 1971 McCall's pattern (35p in the UK):

The lengths we will go to

My old paper patterns are a separate collection and the illustrations are worthy of a blog of their own. But I couldn't resist including the section of the instructions about the appliqué tree and lightning... Just so you know, lightning first, tree second:

Absolutely cracking

Print a pet cat

For those into screenprinting, this printed puss is the cat's pyjamas. I do love his paws – three on the front, one on the back – his smiling face and graphic-print fur, and the fact his friend the mouse is thrown in as an optional extra.

He'd make a brilliant cushion... and if you don't have the space or equipment for screenprinting, or don't fancy the mess, you could always appliqué him instead.
(Update: to make him a glam lady-cat-friend, click here)

The pussy cat's book-mate Pollyanna is a long-lost cousin of Kitty the Clothkits doll, but with a smaller wardrobe, consisting of one apron:



They are both taken from Printed Rag Toys (1967) by Joy Wilcox, who won the Design Centre Award for her toys in 1965:



It's full of wonderful things for '60s kids to play with – king, queen, robot and spaceman dressing-up outfits, a carousel drawstring bag and a hobby horse (or I should say a stern-looking hobby unicorn):

What a lustrous mane

Queen for a day

Got a fancy-dress party to go to or need a cat-shaped cushion? Click here for a printable pattern.

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Hello sailor

Source: The St Michael Book of Handicrafts for all the Family, 1975

Surely this nautical, rope-handled, hessian-ricrac-appliqué beauty deserves more from life than sitting in a boy's bedroom holding his pyjamas?

Ah if only you could still wander into a branch of M&S and put such a compendium as the St Michael Book of Handicrafts in your basket along with your ready meals and undies:



I've been using this book for craft inspiration ever since I picked it up in a Bournemouth charity shop a decade or so ago. The sailor doesn't get a look-in on the cover but the tie-dye horse has made it onto the front and back – maybe he was too tired to move:



Anyway, if you need a fancy new beach bag/swimming bag/shopping bag/library book bag (or OK, pyjama bag), click here for the sailor boy bag pattern, and here and here for the easy peasy instructions.

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Cock-a-doodle-do

The seventh and final Put a bird on it project is – no
sniggering – a cock on a leather bag.



Now don't tell me you don't want a bag just like this cords-and-bowlcut girl's. Well good news – scroll down to the foot of this post and you'll find a link to your very own cock-on-a-bag template. Don't worry if you can't or don't want to sew on leather, any fabric remnants will do.

The pattern is taken from this seemingly innocent Harmony Appliqué leaflet from 1980:



Stay tuned as I'm sure to be sharing more of the homespun delights within.  'Til then, here's your (promise this is the last time I'll say it) cock pattern.

Skirting around the issue

I'm not sure what this winsome maiden is looking so intently at in her conservatory, but I don't half like her skirt:



Oh hang on, she's peeling an orange. Anyway, according to the caption, "Swallow motifs in a printed fabric transform this simple long skirt into an interesting and individual garment. The bold outlines of the bird motifs make them easy to apply, either with satin or zigzag stitch." Can't say fairer than that.

I found it in here:



Excuse the ginormous £1.99 price tag, it's actually printed, rather than stuck, onto the cover. Must have seemed like a good idea back in 1979.